Pun Enchanted Evenings: A Treasury of Wit, Wisdom, Chuckles and Belly Laughs for Language Lovers -- 746 Original Word Plays - Softcover

Yale, David R

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0979176646 ISBN 13: 9780979176647

Publisher: Healthy Relationship Press, 2010

Synopsis

* 746 wildly original puns on every subject from Arizona to zealous crusaders! * 14 ant puns certain to start a new fad! * Bi-lingual puns in English and Spanish, French, Chinese, Latin, Yiddish! * The best new moron puns since the Fifties! * You'll laugh out loud -- guaranteed! * Plus information on the first scientific studies showing the mental superiority of pun-lovers!

About this title

From the Author:

I've always heard things a bit differently, which is how I came to be a punster. When I was about six years old, my Dad told me he had asked his boss for a raisin pay. At least that's how it sounded to me! I couldn't figure out what we would do with all that dried fruit! When I told my Dad what I thought he had said, he couldn't stop laughing!

Both my Dad and my Uncle Arthur loved puns, and we spent many happy hours laughing together. So when I found, as I got older, that some people seemed not to like them, I was puzzled.

But I found out that puns are like direct mail. Although most people secretly like them, they claim they don't. How many times have you told a really good pun, only to have the listeners groan? But then, moments later, you overhear them passing it on!

But you -- and every other pun lover -- can take heart! Although it's considered good form in some circles to groan at even the best puns, a recent study in the Journal of Sighchology by Professor Al Gerian of Mentouri University in Constantine, suggests that pun lovers share some admirable personality characteristics!

Responses to puns reflect some very deep-seated psychological traits, Professor Gerian explains. His study identifies three basic responses to puns -- and their underlying personality types:

* No acknowledgment, or a nonverbal dismissal, like a shrug, indicates an extremely rigid person who thinks along straight lines and is very literal. This personality type has no imagination, minimal verbal and creative abilities, and may actually fail to understand the pun because of limited linguistic skill.

* A groan or verbal dismissal indicates a more flexible personality type with more advanced verbal skills who wants to think non-linearly, but has a hard time doing so. This personality type tends to be insecure and ungiving, and extremely fearful of change. These people may find the playfulness inherent in puns upsetting to their sense of established rules and order. Or they may actually be jealous of the punster's linguistic skills, but unwilling to admit it.

* A broad grin, a hardy laugh, or positive verbal acknowledgment is a highly reliable indicator of top-notch verbal and creative skills, and an ability to look at things from more than one perspective. This personality type is secure, generous, highly innovative, able to admire the punster's linguistic ability -- and capable of responding in kind.

Building on Professor Gerian's pioneering work, Professor Sue Crohse, in a study published in the Journal of Ego and Id-eology looked at punning as a tool for conducting job interviews. Professor Crohse found that 98.4% of the job applicants hired who laughed or smiled at puns had positive performance evaluations during the next three years. But only 32.6% of the groaners performed positively in the same period. Professor Crohse predicts that a pun response test will become a standard component of employment interviews by the year 2020.

Of course if you're a pun lover you've probably suspected this all along.

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Most of the puns in this eBook are fine for children. But a couple dozen of them are slightly to somewhat off-color: Numbers 18, 20, 55, 66, 102, 103, 164, 210, 216, 269, 334, 354, 376, 470, 488, 540, 555, 572, 578, 588, and 627 in particular. Please consider this before buying Pun Enchanted Evenings for children.

About the Author:

David R. Yale has been punning since he was in grade school. He has had short stories published in Midstream, Response, and Jewish Braille Review. The Front Room, one of his short stories, won an Award in a Writers Digest Contest. He has read from his fiction at Union College (Schenectady NY), Claremont College (California), The University of Minnesota, The Mendota (Minnesota) Jazz Emporium, and UCLA.

Yale's coming-of-age novel, Saying No to Naked Women, includes a pun-cracking heroine. If you're into self-discovery and self-awareness, you'll enjoy Saying No to Naked Women, which is available on Amazon. One of Yale's nonfiction books, The Publicity Handbook, was a Fortune Book Club Selection. It's also available on Amazon.

Yale studied fiction with Grace Paley at the Juniper Institute of the University of Massachusetts as well as with Joe Caldwell at the 92nd Street Y. He holds a B.A. from City College of New York and an M.A. from the University of Minnesota.

Yale, an international direct marketing consultant, lives in New York with his wife and daughter. He is working on a second book of word plays, The Pun Also Rises.

About this edition

• Publisher: Healthy Relationship Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0979176646
• ISBN 13: 9780979176647
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 108